(Corrects pargraph 4 to read “favorable foreign exchange” rather than “stronger dollar”) By Michael Erman (Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson reported second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast by around $2 billion on Wednesday as strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business helped it beat Wall Street […]
Health
Johnson & Johnson beats profit estimates on strong Darzalex, medtech sales
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(Corrects pargraph 4 to read “favorable foreign exchange” rather than “stronger dollar”)
By Michael Erman
(Reuters) – Johnson & Johnson reported second-quarter profit and raised its full-year sales forecast by around $2 billion on Wednesday as strong demand for its cancer drug, Darzalex, and strength in its medical device business helped it beat Wall Street expectations.
On an adjusted basis, the drug and medical device maker earned $2.77 per share for the quarter, above analysts’ expectation of $2.68 per share, according to data compiled by LSEG. Sales in the quarter were $23.74 billion, above analysts’ expectation of $22.84 billion.
The company said it now expects full-year sales in the range of $93.2 billion to $93.6 billion, up from its April forecast of $91 billion to $91.8 billion. Analysts on average had estimated sales of $91.5 billion for the year.
It cited strong operational performance in the quarter as well as favorable foreign exchange for the increase.
J&J said in April that it was expecting $400 million in costs related to tariffs, mostly in the company’s medical device business, starting from the second quarter.
Chief Financial Officer Joseph Wolk said in an interview that the company had now reduced that estimate to $200 million due to the pause on U.S. tariffs on China and other retaliatory tariffs.
“We were able to absorb that and still raise our EPS guidance by 25 cents on the year,” Wolk said.
He said the company was not ready to forecast the impact of tariffs on 2026.
“It’s such a fluid environment that we’ll just have to wait and see,” he said.
On an adjusted basis, J&J expects to earn $10.80 to $10.90 per share in 2025, compared with its previous forecast of $10.50 to $10.70 per share.
Quarterly sales for the medtech unit rose 6.1% to $8.5 billion.
Darzalex, a blood cancer therapy launched in 2015, brought in second-quarter sales of $3.54 billion, compared with analysts’ expectation of $3.38 billion.
(Reporting by Michael Erman in New York; Editing by Cynthia Osterman)